Monday, May 7, 2012

Middlebury Qualifies for NCAA Tournament

The Middlebury men’s tennis team is headed to Baltimore this
weekend to compete in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The regional site
hosted by John Hopkins features five teams with the Panthers playing the winner
of Penn State – Harrisburg and Grove City College. The other side of the
regional features a match between host John Hopkins and Elizabethtown.

The NCAA qualification comes after a semifinal appearance by
Middlebury in last weekend’s NESCAC Conference Tournament. A 5-4 win over Bates
in the quarterfinals of NESCACs likely assured a bid to the NCAA Tourney for
the Panthers. After knocking off Bates, Midd fell to Amherst 5-1 in the
semifinal round. The match was much closer than the final score showed, with
the Panthers taking sets at one and four singles and falling in a tiebreaker at
one doubles. The coaching staff and players would like to thank everyone who
came and supported Midd during the NESCAC tournament. A special thank you
to former players Elliot Jia and Andy Peters, both of whom were members of the
2010 National Champion Midd team. Former Middlebury Coach Dave Schwarz was also
in attendance, much to the delight of many current Panthers. A special thanks
also goes to Ken Jones for treating the Panthers to a great post match dinner
Saturday night.

The men seem to be hitting their stride with the first round
of NCAAs right around the corner. In particular, the doubles play of all the
Panthers is moving in the right direction after a great deal of emphasis on
doubles during the last few weeks of practice. Follow the progress of Midd this
weekend on twitter.